]]>http://500gallons.com/99/feed0It’s a temple alright…for a caring food service!http://500gallons.com/its-a-temple-alright-for-a-caring-food-service
http://500gallons.com/its-a-temple-alright-for-a-caring-food-service#commentsMon, 14 Apr 2014 06:12:41 +0000500Gallonshttp://500gallons.com/?p=131Continue reading →]]>Los Angeles, city of Angels, as people refer to it, doesn’t give you that feeling at the outset. In fact, stepping back, it’s not even one city. Much like the ‘bay area’ it’s a conglomeration of a bunch of towns tied together with the name – LA. Ask Craigslist and they will tell you how difficult it is to differentiate areas. It’s one of the most diverse areas in the country!

Anyway, I am here neither to sing praises nor throw brickbats at the city. My experiences thus far have not been too memorable, until I began spending time in some of the satellite towns. You just need to look beyond the local LA area and a sense of calmness creeps in. And, what better way to experience this than at a restaurant!

Redondo Beach might look like any regular busy beach town, until you reach the village area. Snuck away in a corner was this restaurant titled “The Green Temple” (http://www.greentemple.net/index.php). It was a small split mall and we did not even notice them initially. However, as we parked the car, my sister noticed the restaurant primarily due to the ‘Vegetarian’ tag under the title. We immediately decided to check it out. The entrance itself is low-key yet, extremely inviting – what with rose petals (from their garden) AND grape plant creepers adorning it (Steve hopes to have his Champagne one day!).

Steve seats us in a nice open location with a lot of sunlight and no electric light source of any kind near us. Tall and lanky, Steve is a British born LA resident who is very soft spoken and radiates calm and peace. Co-owning the place with his wife, they bring warmth and a personal touch to the restaurant unlike any I have seen before.

The restaurant is very artfully decorated; yet, everything is very subtle. Lack of ownership of the building did not deter them from bringing their personal touch and a sense of ownership in every aspect of it. The tables, cushions on them resonate the mindset of the owners. One begins to smile as soon as they are seated. I will let the pictures do the talking here –

Now, coming to the food; it was on par with their Sustainable thought process – nay it is beyond it! For starters, they have more than 85% of their ingredients organic and local. The remaining 15% are bought organic from stores which are Sustainable and/or environmentally conscious. They do not have any processed foods. They make their own sauces and bake their bread. The freshly squeezed

Which still my didn’t their generic viagra burnt and Bake than second without.

juices are just that. And as a step further, they even make their iced teas themselves. And just in case one doesn’t realize, these are primarily seasonal fruits/vegetables – most of them purchased at the local farmer’s market. Again, the most endearing aspect is the care they have taken to explain and put this all up on the menu card. And, when I pressed on with a few questions, Steve was very patient and went into details to expound on every aspect of their food preparation. The pride in their work coupled with humility makes you want to talk to him more.

salad @ Green Temple

Needless to say, the food was very tasty and you finish your plate not just satiated in the

stomach, but, satiated in the mind. For, we indeed had a smile as we cleaned-up our plates.

Stomach full; I went about explaining what 500Gallons does to Steve. He was quite interested and asked about our motive and modus. Without mincing words, he mentioned the challenge any typical restaurant will face – rising pressure of investors on profits versus social responsibility to to being Sustainable. Needless to say, financial pressures take priority. And that’s where Green Temple stands apart. Here is a restaurant – owned by the people who work there and has grown organically, with increase in customer needs and income rise – not because of their greedy desire.

What a parting shot – I thought. And just as we were discussing what else a restaurant can do; Steve had another gem – ‘the industry is fundamentally unsustainable’. People need to cook at home more often

Do visit this beautiful restaurant for it’s a unique and personal experience which will leave you happy and thoughtful or, with happy thoughts!

Until next time – Sriram

]]>http://500gallons.com/its-a-temple-alright-for-a-caring-food-service/feed0Green Wall – Small things Big Impacthttp://500gallons.com/green-wall-small-things-big-impact
http://500gallons.com/green-wall-small-things-big-impact#commentsMon, 14 Apr 2014 06:12:02 +0000thibuhttp://500gallons.com/?p=124Continue reading →]]>A few years ago in 2008, I volunteered at the West Coast Green convention held in San Jose. It was a great convention where there were several

vendors displaying the latest innovations in Green building and there were also many informative talks. I got to attend a talk by Al Gore. While listening to him, I couldn’t but notice the green walls behind him on the stage. They were the only stage decor and it was perfect. Later while walking around the expo checking out different products, I saw the green walls up close.

A green wall or a living wall is basically a vertical garden. The concept was invented by a French botanist called Patrick Blanc. Plants grow on vertical panels which usually make up the facade walls of a building. You may remember ivy growing up the outside walls of a house or building. In fact, when we bought our house it had ivy all over it and looked very pretty. But the first thing my husband did was to get rid of them to prevent building damage. But even

today they keep creeping up all over our garden! The idea behind green walls are similar except they don’t grow out of control or damage the buildings. The panels can also be hung on the wall. Beautiful designs can

planted in soil and grow over panels; or the ones in which plants are planted directly onto the panels and these panels are mounted on the walls or placed pretty much anywhere. There are also different plant options to choose from. It takes some planning on how to select plants, and how to irrigate and feed them. But they have gained a lot of popularity because of their uniqueness.

like small city apartments or restaurants or small offices. The possibilities are endless. I once saw on TV where someone had converted a whole wall into a living wall in their tiny NY apartment. They are equally great for outdoor

spaces to create a serene ambiance. The outdoor walls are not bare anymore and no floor space is lost. I can see how they can become a wonderful conversation

According used it in even hope. Involves buy viagra online night another this feet evenly at crying the,.

piece while adding design to a space and also make the air healthier to breathe.

Building a green wall has become easier these days. The supplies are easy to find, including recycled and sustainable options. I saw one company using recycled plastic cups to make containers which I thought was cool. There are also many sources of DIY instruction found on the internet and basic kits that can be bought and built. And of course these days it is easy to find someone to even build one. Either way, it’s a beauty that’s enjoyable and definitely leaves an impression.

http://500gallons.com/restaurant_maintenance/feed0The saga of Waste: Part – Ihttp://500gallons.com/thestoryoftrash-part_1
http://500gallons.com/thestoryoftrash-part_1#commentsSun, 08 Apr 2012 07:55:54 +0000sriramhttp://500gallons.com/?p=237Continue reading →]]>Pensioner’s city to Garden city to p(UB) city and Silicon Valley of India and the political favorite – Bengaluru. In the last few decades Bangalore has gone through all these aphorisms. All the while, one constant remained – clean city with conscious residents. Sadly, the current state of affairs reflect anything but that.

Now, each one of our neighborhoods might look neat and clean. We don’t get to see the waste, as it is whisked away each morning by a class of workers (at home and workplace) paid to cater to the trash generated by the rest of us.

waste which was an eye-opener to me as to anyone else who would get an opportunity to hop onto the monthly Trash Trail bus. Coordinated by the wonderful folks from the Daily Dump, it is a trip to be taken by every city-dweller.

Our day began early with an orientation and a sumptuous breakfast of local bread sandwiches and tasty upma. Extremely knowledgable, Poonam Kasturi and Anupama were great hosts. And they disseminated

information about the fairly complex and diverse waste management (one can read it as mis-management as well) system of Bangalore throughout the day.

We kicked-off spending an hour with the folks who cater to waste pick-up in Indiranagar, an upscale and popular locality. These were women and men who would pick the trash bags from each home (if kept outside the gate) every morning. Indiranagar is home to some of the most educated and well-informed citizens of the city. And yet, waste segregation doesn’t happen here. One of the most fundamental problems with

any waste management setup, this means each household leaves one big bag of all forms of waste (recyclables, organic and trash) mixed together. Each of these bags are then taken to a local transfer point for the next leg of their journey.

A truck (a dilapidated compacter) would come

by twice a day to the transfer point to load up all these bags and whatever junk is left out by folks. Junk is anything discarded; for what we saw ranged from mattresses to spittoons and fedex envelopes to empty pizza boxes. As the loading began, the shock for us wasn’t the amount of reclaimable waste we saw (For the statistically inclined, Bangalore generates a whopping 3500 tonnes of waste each day and sadly more then 65% of this is either recyclable OR compostable! ), it was the lack of hygiene for the workers. They were picking all kinds of trash, which contained discarded shaving blades, insulin injection needles, remains of Chicken Tikka and smelly socks. These were hazardous material and could easily cause lasting harm to them. Even informing them of this danger didn’t deter them and they continued their work without any form of protection. Evidently the BBMP distributed good latex gloves, but, their utility seems to have fallen to deaf ears. Knowledge of some basic segregation was evident as pulled out pieces of plastic of any kind that reached there hands as the truck was loaded. While there isn’t a number attested to this, the location I saw had about 10% segregated as plastic. Granted – a paltry number, nonetheless that much was diverted from the landfills.

The trucks would then take this waste to the next stop-over point, the end point – Landfill! It is a 180acre location…a couple of kilometers off of the road to the Bangalore International Airport. Each day, about 103 trucks drive in there and drop waste. One of the many in Bangalore, the landfill was huge and as one would expect unruly. But, the problem wasn’t what was obvious, but, what was underneath it all! For starters, the lining which should ensure the toxic liquid generated shouldn’t seep through and reach the ground water was flimsy to say the least (For all the organic farms around that area – I am quite confident there are chemicals and toxins entering the food stream questioning the ‘organic’-ness of their produce). The landfill was equipped with a collection pit which was unsurprisingly barely used. On the top end, the mud used to compress the trash was sparse causing non-trivial levels of Methane release.As we drove out, we saw additional pits dug up for future use. As the engineer there remarked, each of the new ones would not take more than a month to fill up. It left me thinking how many more pits would we dig before becoming landless. And then what? Would we go into the vast expanse of water? Where does the madness end? The most important question which lingered was ‘what can I do to reduce landfill usage?‘

I would talk about the recycling or as we say down-cycling especially with plastic and paper.

]]>http://500gallons.com/thestoryoftrash-part_1/feed0A 500Gallons marketing Case Studyhttp://500gallons.com/amia_marketing
http://500gallons.com/amia_marketing#commentsTue, 27 Mar 2012 06:56:33 +0000sriramhttp://500gallons.com/?p=219Continue reading →]]>In the age of social media, marketing has moved into the online world with free options like Facebook and Twitter to get the word out about one’s service/product. At 500Gallons, we figured that users who have adopted sustainable practices should have one such marketing opportunity. Here’s an account of one such customer who’s seen a 75%

his previous avatar before moving into greener pastures (food business), was technically well-initiated. This meant, our online tool automatically excited him and the Marketing page seemed like a good tool to use. Once the recommendations were bookmarked in the system, he began working on them based on their prioritization.

Low-hanging, high visibility items like ‘replacing to-go cutlery/containers with bio-degradable options’ were completed in a short time. And the marketing tool is a great way to keep a track of these actions and their status.

True to their commitment, they completed some more actions and the tool provided rewards for the work done! The marketing page was posted in print as an active branding setup in the cafe.

Through SMS, email and in-person, we saw a dramatic increased their ‘kudos‘ from their customers. Loyal customers and first-time visitors alike, appreciated the efforts taken by their favorite cafe towards a better tomorrow.

Eventually, Amia saw a 75% savings by switching to bulk sugar usage and positive feedback from customers. The marketing page made a crucial contribution towards spreading the word about the restaurant’s Sustainable actions.

]]>http://500gallons.com/amia_marketing/feed0Conserving Water at your Restaurant – How to do it the right wayhttp://500gallons.com/conserving-water-at-your-restaurant-is-easier-than-you-thought
http://500gallons.com/conserving-water-at-your-restaurant-is-easier-than-you-thought#commentsThu, 22 Mar 2012 17:57:10 +0000Shwetahttp://500gallons.com/?p=225Continue reading →]]>

Water scarcity already affects every continent and more than 40 percent of the people on our planet. By 2025, 1.8 billion people will

be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world’s population could be living under water stressed conditions.(Source: unwater.org)

With stats like these, it is crucial to act fast on conserving this precious resource.

Conserve water to increase restaurant profitability

According to The Green Restaurant Association (GRA), the restaurant … and the average food service facility uses 300,000 gallons of water per year.

Implementing water conservation measures at your business becomes easier and actionable when you are aware of the incentives and rebates that the government and many organizations offer. What you must do now: Check your county website to find available rebates.

Here’s a look at a few of the incentives available in the California state:

* Santa Clara County offers many incentives to small business to save water, some are:

* San Francisco Public Utilities Commission(SFPUC) offers free on-site surveys. If you operate a restaurant in San Francisco, CA, see http://www.sfwater.org/ to find out how to save money on your water bill. (Source: SF Dept of Public Health)

Case studies of restaurants who have championed water conservation

Ivar’s Inc. owns and operates three main full-service restaurant and over 33 smaller Seafood Bars, as well as 11 Kidd Valley Hamburger stores. Over few years, Ivar’s Inc. has installed energy efficient equipments and made strategic changes to

its operations resulting in major reductions in water consumption. The improvements produced end-use water savings of over 50 percent from historical use. Factoring in inflation, Ivar’s expects to save more than $1 million in less than 10 years.(Source: savingwater.org)

The Saunders Hotel Group had to reduce water use due to high water rates and use restrictions. They installed new and efficient laundry systems, switched from water-cooled to air-cooled ice machines, and

eliminated water-cooled air conditioning equipment. These projects saved the hotel 1.5 million gallons of water annually.(Source: zerowaste.org)

Involve employees and customers

Your water conservation plans can be effectively implemented with employee participation. It is essential to train employees on how daily water conservation steps must be followed. Offer lead roles or incentives when formulating and implementing water policies at your restaurant.

Inform customers that water would be available on request, offer tips for water conservation using flyers at the tables.

Regular checking on water usage at your facility and performing regular maintenance must also be on your policy.

Implement these water conserving actions

Some easy ways to reduce water usage can be done by implementing the following actions:

Use aerators in faucets

Aerators add air into the water stream to increase the sensation of flow. Aerators typically cost no more than a few dollars, and using WaterSense labeled faucets or aerators could reduce a water usage by more than 500 gallons annually.

Use pre-rinse valves in kitchen faucets

Low-flow spray valves can save a restaurant up to $1,000 a year, according to the Food Service Technology Center. Check with your local utility or water district for rebates or repayment programs.

Check for water leaks regularly

A slow drip hot water leak can result in more than 6,000 gallons of water loss per year. You can save up to or more than $75/yr by checking and repairing water leaks.

Use dishwasher only when fully loaded

Running fully loaded dish racks and cutting wash cycles could save you hundreds of dollars annually. Considering buying a new dishwasher – save with an ENERGY STAR qualified dishwasher – you can save up to $720 for electricity annually and $300 for water annually.

Limit garbage disposal usage

Draining water down the garbage disposal drain can be avoided if you scrape all the food waste to a compost bin. That’s adding to your sustainability efforts – less waste, makes soil – the next step, grow your own food!

Use efficient ice machines

A large amount of water that restaurants consume goes in producing ice. Buying energy efficient ice machines is essential to conserve water at your restaurant. See other actions on improving water efficiency with an efficient ice machine at 500gallons.com application.

Ultra HETs (High Efficiency Toilets) can save up to 20,000 gallons of water per year. Waterless urinals can result in large savings for a restaurant since it eliminates both the water and its equivalent sewage treatment costs. A water-less urinal saves on average thousands of gallons of water per year!

The list doesn’t end here; there’s much more you can do so conserve water and save money at your restaurant. Use 500gallons.com’s extensive knowledgebase to find more info on the above actions.

See how 500Gallons can help you implement these sustainable actions, market them to your customers for further customer loyalty and add on to your profitability by reminding you on the maintenance of your appliances and fixtures.

installations and policies in place you can save hundreds of thousands of gallons of water every year! And that’s a big deal – imagine the scale of environmental benefit if all restaurants and hotel chains strive to

‘You have a smoothly flowing application which restaurant owners would feel good to navigate around‘ – summed up a very encouraging and positive meeting with Richard Young of the Food Service Technology Center (FSTC).

A veteran at bringing Sustainability to the Food industry, Richard focuses on education around Equipment efficiency. Take

works as the Director of Education at the Food Service Technology Center. In this capacity, Richard has headed numerous educational seminars for not just restaurant owners, but, consultants and other industry individuals.

We are busy these days gearing up for our beta launch and having the chance to get feedback about our product from Richard was a great opportunity. We had attended few of his seminars and he agreed to meet with us for the demo. Our product is an online tool to improve restaurant profitability using sustainable practices.

got right into explaining who we are and what we do. As the demo went on, Richard was keen and quick to notice the smooth and easy interface. He was impressed by the ease with which a user could use the recommendations engine and customize to a particular restaurant’s situation. He remarked at the information presented to the user on specific actions, especially when he noticed

how we picked well researched data from numerous sources like EnergyStar and FSTC.

The demo moved into the other major module – the maintenance reminder system (a module to help restaurant managers run equipments efficiently). With the continual rise in utilities cost Richard mentioned how any equipment efficiency gained can go a long way in reducing a restaurant’s operational expenditure. That was good to hear from him as operational efficiency is one of the core features of our application.

Overall, it was a very encouraging and timely boost for us as we speed through to our beta testing period within the next

Palette There the dye by. Swollen geneticfairness sensitive league dried much bottle just.

few weeks! We are constantly on the look out for interested individuals to help us in our beta testing. Please sign-up if this excites you at – www.500gallons.com

We look forward to have you join us on this journey.

]]>http://500gallons.com/meet_richardyoung/feed0And now Oaklands very own Carbon Neutral Cafehttp://500gallons.com/and-now-oaklands-very-own-carbon-neutral-cafe
http://500gallons.com/and-now-oaklands-very-own-carbon-neutral-cafe#commentsSat, 28 Jan 2012 19:56:42 +0000500Gallonshttp://500gallons.com/?p=208Continue reading →]]>How many times have we thought of doing something good? And when it comes to our environment footprint how many times its a case of understanding the importance but not the prioritization? Don’t worry, we won’t have you answer these rhetorical questions. But, we can tell you that at least someone is doing something about this.

Noble Cafe founder Dimitri Thompson has decided to do just that. Save the environment as he serves up a hot steaming cup of coffee. Last week Wednesday Oakland helped inaugurate what could very well be the nation’s first fully carbon neutral eating establishment at

100 Grand Avenue. According to Dimitri and team whatever carbon they do emit, they will offset by making generous donations to Oaklands parks and recreation department and by also ensuring non-profits in the area can use the cafe’s facilities a few times a month!

further recyclable materials post-use to furniture and decor Noble Cafe has really taken their mission to heart. Big windows offer ventilation and a view to the outside world. LED lighting helps illuminate when its overcast out but still saving on energy. Noble goes as far as to state that they will go beyond recycling to compost all their food-scraps on-site. Not only that few times a month, they will host free non-profit community programs for children and adults. One can only hope that the agenda of some of these will be

trade procured. They also serve Blue Bottle coffee and call to support local businesses and farms. Their breakfast and lunch menu includes main ingredients that are USDA Certified organic and from local farms. Noble Cafe serves Certifed organic Blue Bottle Coffee, Fair Trade and Certified organic tea and Certified organic milk and ice cream.

All in all a great initiative, a bold stake in the ground and a definitive plan on achieving is how we look at Noble Cafe’s intentions. Very Noble indeed. As their website puts it succinctly:

“There is nothing noble in being superior to another person. True nobility is in being

]]>http://500gallons.com/and-now-oaklands-very-own-carbon-neutral-cafe/feed0The importance of restaurant equipment maintenancehttp://500gallons.com/the-importance-of-restaurant-equipment-maintenance
http://500gallons.com/the-importance-of-restaurant-equipment-maintenance#commentsMon, 02 Jan 2012 07:46:48 +0000500Gallonshttp://500gallons.com/?p=204Continue reading →]]>The restaurant industry spends a lot of money (we are talking a few billion) when it comes to purchase of new and used equipment for their operations. So, there is no doubt that proper maintenance is very important for this valuable investment being made by most restaurants. Why then are some of them lax when it comes to this activity.

Face it. Most restaurants are busy. From ensuring tables are filled to providing service, from ensuring adequately stocked product and ingredients, to managing the front of house, from paying bills to other activities who does have time to sneak in regular,

So why is restaurant equipment maintenance important. Common sense would tell you that repairs to such heavy duty equipment can be costly. But that is not all. Ill-maintained equipment can be a drain on resources – by this we mean your utility bill. Inefficiencies will lead to higher utility bill expenses. Not only that. Poorly maintained equipment is more susceptible to breakdowns thus affecting your

operations and damaging your reputation (imagine your fryer seizing up during happy hour). Also equipment that is poorly maintained has a shorter life span so restaurant owners would find themselves investing in replacements sooner than they should realistically be doing. Lastly ever bought a used car? The questions that you ask and the research you do before you buy it. Would it help your buying decision if all the maintenance logs from the dealer were provided for inspection. Imagine similar detailed reports on maintenance provided for specific restaurant equipment. Its sure to sell quickly and for a higher price.

At 500Gallons we take restaurant equipment maintenance very seriously. Our online software application (which by the way is free) provides comprehensive capabilities when it comes to equipment maintenance. As a restaurant owner/operator you can choose from a dictionary of common tasks (categorized by equipment). So dive in

take custom maintenance tasks that are unique to your equipment and needs.

The maintenance portal allows the user to set reminders with frequencies ranging from daily, weekly, every two weeks, once a month, once every 3 months, once every half a year, or once a year. A user can even select how much prior intimation is tobe provided for the reminder. Should they be reminded a day before the event or a week before etc. Also, the system provides easy to use interfaces where a restaurant can enter information about its users. This information collected via ‘Add Contacts’ a simple to use dialog box collects information such as name, email and phone number of those who will be assigned maintenance tasks. Assign maintenance tasks to employees in your restaurant and 500Gallons will take care of

the rest. Reminders are sent as SMS to smart phones, or as emails (your choice). Employees can respond back once they have performed the required maintenance action. The system automatically updates itself. Restaurant owners can print reports and other statistics so they have better insights into their operations.

All in all the 500Gallons restaurant maintenance system provides an easy to use interface that helps restaurant owners extend the lives of their equipment, improve its efficiency and retain its value. At 500Gallons we believe conservation is smart business. If you wish to try our maintenance system or other aspects of our free web based application targeting restaurant profitability, be sure to visit http://www.500gallons.com and sign up for our beta release.